Please Wait For Me

At my coming-of-age party, Dad told me to choose one of the three boys I had grown up with to marry into the family.

The first to step back was my childhood friend, the boy who had grown up with me in the orphanage. The second was the bodyguard’s son, who had once taken three knife wounds for me. He shook his head without hesitation.

As for the man I was supposed to marry through a family alliance, the same man who had held me just yesterday and promised he would never marry anyone but me, he looked at me with open ridicule.

“Mr. Deen, isn’t this a bit too much? Everyone knows Emma was kidnapped for more than ten years. Those kidnappers were insane. Who knows what they might’ve done? I’m not about to marry damaged goods. If you’re really serious about an alliance, why not marry your other daughter, Isabella, to me instead? Someone like Emma is only suited for men who live in the shadows.”

He glanced around the room, then pulled a boy from the corner—a quiet young man who had been standing there with his head lowered. Together with the other two, he laughed as they shoved me straight into the boy’s arms.

“What a perfect match!” one of them jeered. “The used goods and a bastard son!”

What was supposed to be a grand ceremony to choose my husband turned into a public humiliation for me alone.

Later, they told me the reason they had done it was all part of a little game with Isabella.

“As long as Bella is happy, we can honor our promises to you afterward.”

They all assumed I would do what I had always done before—swallow the humiliation and shamelessly continue following them around. However, this time, I didn’t want to humiliate myself anymore, because I was indeed getting married, and the groom was the very man they pushed into my arms earlier that night.

As for Isabella and their little game, I wasn’t playing along anymore.

After the party ended, I had just returned home when Isabella Deen hurried over. There was a trace of mockery in her eyes.

“Why did you leave so quickly, Emma? Was it because of that little joke they played on you? Did it make you feel embarrassed? Ah, it’s really my fault. The three of them just spoil me too much. That’s why they went along with a joke like that. Please don’t take it to heart, okay?”

I didn’t say a word.

When I was first brought back to the Deen family, that was when I learned about this so-called “younger sister.” After I was kidnapped all those years ago, my mother fell into deep depression. She barely ate or slept, and eventually she passed away. The very next day after her funeral, Dad brought home a woman and her daughter.

That daughter was Isabella, and the woman was her mother, Regina Hendricks. Maybe from the very beginning, her place in Dad’s heart had surpassed mine, the daughter who had been kidnapped and lost for over a decade.

Just then, three figures hurried over. The moment Liam Collins saw Isabella, he quickened his steps, his voice filled with concern.

“Why are you standing out here? It’s chilly, and you’ll catch a cold. Here, put on my jacket first.”

Tim Ward pulled a small pink hand warmer out of his suit pocket and handed it to her.

“Take this. Don’t let your hands freeze.”

Meanwhile, George Raynor was holding a cup of tea.

“You’re always cold. I made this myself just for you. The temperature should be perfect now.”

I stood to the side, like an outsider who had accidentally stepped into their little world of four. Just as I was about to quietly leave, Isabella suddenly spoke again. Her voice carried a trace of grievance.

“Emma is still angry with me. I’m really not in the mood to drink whatever tea you have.”

George immediately shot me a cold glance and said, “Why are you still standing there? Because of you, Bella is so upset that she can’t even eat. Go make something for her before she goes hungry.”

Tim nodded right away. “Didn’t you spend all those years cooking in that traffickers’ den? Go on then.”

Liam frowned and let out a sigh. “Bella, stop being childish. Even if you’re getting married, you’re Bella’s sister. You should be taking care of her.”

I finally raised my head and looked at them.

Liam was someone I had known since the orphanage. Back then, I was small and frail, and the other children often bullied me. One day, when a few older kids cornered me, he stood in front of me with a stick taller than he was, stubbornly blocking them.

He had said, “Em, no matter what happens in the future, I’ll always be by your side.”

But after meeting Isabella, the first thing he said to me was, “Both of you are daughters of the Deen family. How is it that you’re so much worse than your sister?”

As for George, the heir to a famous medical family, even if Isabella only caught a small cold or fever, he would panic and carry her straight to the hospital.